The Red Letter Bible
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Romans 12:1 NASB
Sacrifice – It’s all about blood. I know that most of us are squeamish about blood. When we see blood we think, “Pain!” Blood has a very particular smell and taste. And a blood sacrifice is literally covered in red. But there is no way to escape this image. Sacrifice is about blood. Why does sacrifice have to involve blood? Because blood is life.
There were many kinds of sacrifice in the ancient Jewish religion. Leviticus spells them out. One sacrifice had a very special meaning. It was the sacrifice of expiation. This sacrifice was continual and daily. It was the burnt offering of the fire that was never allowed to go out. In this sacrifice, the blood was the most important part of the offering. This sacrifice was a visible, tangible demonstration of the fact that God owned life by right of blood (Leviticus 17:11). And if God owns life, then a sacrifice is our way of giving back to Him what rightfully belongs to Him.
Paul uses the word thusia. The word covers a wide range of meanings associated with sacrifice, but the most important meaning in this verse is found in the adjectives attached to thusia. This sacrifice is living, holy and acceptable. If you were alive in the first century, these adjectives would cause you to stop in your tracks. Sacrifices were always killed! If the blood was spilled, death followed. What is Paul talking about? We are immune to this shock because we have heard the words too many times. Rabbi Bob Gorelik points out that there is only one set of circumstances where “living sacrifice” can apply: that is when the sacrificial animal has been accepted by the priest as spotless and then is discovered not to be pure. The animal has already been dedicated to God. It can’t be returned to the previous owner. But it can’t be sacrificed because it has a blemish. What happens to such an animal? It is left to live the rest of its natural life as part of the Temple flock.
This describes us. We have been offered and accepted, but we are not blameless or pure. What is left to us is to live out our days as part of the Temple flock, as servants of the King. We don’t belong to that world we left behind when we come to present ourselves. We can’t go back. But we don’t come without spots. We can’t be ritually slaughtered either. We are the in-between people, sacrifices that still live.
It is about the blood, but it’s not about our spilled blood. Our blood, our lives, have a different role to play.
Topical Index: blood, sacrifice, Romans 12:1
I agree, it’s “all about the blood”. Most importantly, though, it’s about the blood that Yeshua shed for us.
Through His sacrifice, we are made righteous and able to stand before the Father. We have been declared blameless, holy, above reproach.
That’s my understanding of the text anyway. Jude 24, Col. 1:22, and Eph. 1:3-7. Just to name a few.
As a side note, I would be interested to know where in Torah it talks about a dedicated animal that’s been accepted for a sacrifice, then found to be defective, is set out to remain in the temple flock. I found something similar but, in was in mishnah bekhorot. However, that only had to do with a firstling calf, in which, when they found the dedicated firstling to be defective, they all were able to just eat it. But, it was still slaughtered.
I don’t know about the staying alive part. I don’t think it may be as much thanks to my defectiveness as to His grace and mercy, although the two do go hand in glove…
But I do have a dim understanding that the sacrifice part is something that I, as my own priest representative (who has always been a sinful human being), am responsible for. Paul said he died daily, so I assume he knew about that dying to sin. Um, that would be, hopefully, eternal death – permanent separation forever – I don’t want the stuff back; so help me, God! I guess when the dying is done, the sacrifice will have been perfected (completed) in my life.
The way I understand this, I sacrifice (repent for) my sins in order to clean up (perfect) the offering of me. In heaven, before the Throne, my heavenly High Priest substitutes Himself for my sacrifice (which would be those sins) and presents Himself as the Sacrifice. At no point am I the sacrifice. I never was able to be my own representative, which is what the pure sacrifice represents. At that point (repentance), the Father is satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son for me. I am redeemed (bought back), but not for slaughter. Because the Son died in my place (sinner) I get to live in His (adopted child).
I have noticed that nowhere in this am I the sacrifice. I die to (separate myself from) my sins, and my Saviour dies for me. He and my sin have a suicidal pact. I get to live the whole time. I have noticed that the only time I am dead is if I step OUT of this vicarious equation. A sinner is a person who is insisting on self-representation, which is not recommended in any court.
My tribe the in -between people !!
I am working on my story & training to be a DOVES survivors voice volunteer . I will share my story . I plan to share how I visualize all the emotional trauma i have experienced, placing it in an alabaster box & where I hope it will be an offering to help others ,my life being poured out for others, I am in- between; I won’t go back to abuse but I am still wounded stuck in ambivalence and in desperate need of healing , so I take this place & find the feet of Jesus to pour out..
Dear Skip,
I so appreciate your teaching, they are so accurate and spot on. Keep up the great work so we can daily all learn a little more.
Blessings,
Life is in the Blood! Technology has proven that there is more to blood
-it reveals the gender of a fetus even in the early stages of conception. Amazing.
Interesting excerpts-
“Paul mentions the living sacrifices without explanation, as if the readers would be familiar with the concept. Similar early rabbinic vocabulary suggests that Paul is referring to sacrifices which were given to the Temple but which were inappropriate for offering, because they were female instead of male or for other technical reasons. They could not be un-offered so, although they were sacrifices, they were kept alive as Temple property till they became blemished, and any profit from them was for the Lord.” Jerusalem Perspective.
“Current worship studies and services highlight primarily the Christ-centered teachings of the New Testament while failing to give full attention to the influential Jewish perspective and history of the early Christian writers. This depth of comprehension could be gained if Christian worship adhered more closely to a study of all Biblical texts, before and after the life of Jesus. Instead, these gaps in knowledge produce a culture of Christian worship that is less informed, less effective, and less unified than it could be.
This missing perspective has the potential to restore greater unity to the Church body as it encourages its members to live continually as sacrificial worshipers in God’s presence.” Thesis on Restoring the Hebraic Perspective of Christian Worship by Doran, Jeremy Richard, A.L.M., HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 2013
“Furthermore, the prophet Ezekiel warned the Jewish nation that a righteous man could not atone for the sins of the wicked. Wouldn’t we consider a father cruel if he punished an obedient child for the misdeeds of another? Only an unjust society would pardon its criminals while imprisoning the innocent. The prophet therefore warns that no innocent person can die for the sins of the wicked!” Outreach Judaism
Truly, our blood, our lives have a different role to play!